The invention relates to a control device for equipment, whose working or operating characteristic is or is to be influenced by the ambient temperature thereof. Such equipment can e.g. be switching devices, such as switches, regulating or control devices, etc., which are used in such a way that they are exposed to varying ambient temperatures.
Operating switching devices of electric heating appliances, such as electric cookers, are usually located relatively close to the heating means to be operated therewith on the back of a switch shield and can consequently be exposed to varyingly high temperatures ranging from ambient temperature, e.g. roughly 20.degree. C. to roughly 125.degree. C. Thus, the switching characteristics can maladjust their switching device, e.g. influencing it in such a way that specific, manually settable switch positions can lead to heating levels completely different from those required. In this case a single or a plurality of control mechanisms is appropriately used for compensating the ambient temperature influence. It has been shown that at high ambient temperatures an overcompensation can occur, which leads to the full power being reached at an apparatus setting, which is below the setting for this maximum power.
DE-OS 31 03 561 discloses a compensating device for avoiding such disadvantages and which has proved to be very satisfactory. In this case the overcompensation is avoided in that the working or operating path of the temperature sensor of the compensating device is limited by a stop member on a correcting device. However, it has been found that for certain uses a still more precise matching of the switching characteristics of such switching equipment is appropriate.